Full-day kindergarten becomes option in D47

Crystal Lake students can make choice to pay for full-day program

In 2013-14, Crystal Lake School District 47 kindergartners can choose to go all day or just the 2 1/2 hours now offered.

There were tears of joy from several kindergarten teachers, when the optional full-day was approved 5 to 1, said Jean Bevevino, assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and assessment.

"The teachers are all ready for this," Bevevino said. "We feel we do great things with our kids already, but we think we can do even more now."

The cost to the district to offer full-day kindergarten at each of its nine elementary schools is $1.2 million annually. But that will be offset by the $170 or so per month parents will pay, district official said.

The district serves 700 kindergartners in half-day slots. There are about 19 kindergarten teachers.

Bevevino said there will be a "process in place" for parents who need fees waived or reduced.

Full-day kindergarten was a common topic for years among parents, teachers and principals. After a survey conducted a few years ago indicated 70 percent of parents would support full-day kindergarten, it became a priority, she said.

Teachers say it's hard to fit everything into the shorter time, and now with space opening up at each of the elementary schools due to lower enrollment, the district has the rooms to offer full-day. Whether more teachers are needed will depend on how many parents take advantage of the option, Bevevino said.

Jennifer Kallaus, a kindergarten teacher in her 11th year at West Elementary School in Crystal Lake, said the longer day allows for focusing on reading and writing, social and emotional skills, problem solving and cooperation. Full-day kindergarten allows time to help a child develop a sense of empathy and learn the rules of working together and communicating in a large group, she said.

For children who have not been to pre-school, kindergarten is the first time they are in large social groups and it takes time to learn how to navigate the new relationships, Kallaus said. Children need the added time together, and with the teacher, to feel secure in all skills, both academically and emotionally, she said.

"We want the time to develop the whole child," she said. "In two-and-a-half hours, you are moving fast."

School board member Nancy Gonsiorek was the lone vote against full-day kindergarten. Board member Ron Routzahn was absent.

"I'm always a team player. Once a decision is made, I get behind it and support it and I want it to be the best it can be," Gonsiorek said, despite her doubts over the $5.5 million price tag to run it over the next five years in "uncertain" economic times.

"I understand it might be a good thing. I don't know if it was the best thing for $5.5 million," she said. "We are creating a new stream of expenses when we really have to be looking at where we can cut expenses."

She also is concerned that some families will not be able to afford the $170 monthly fee. She said while some families may meet the criteria for reduced or waives fees, others may not but yet can't afford to pay.

"If we are going to have it, we should have it for everybody," she said. "The minute you leave some people out, you are going to leave some behind, and I think that is just wrong."